Autumn Blues with a few gems included.

It’s tough out there, the last six weeks have been a bit up and down, but too much down to be honest!  Following the 28^th river double I had hoped to get a reasonable chance to go to the Ribble in an attempt for the next river, the cold weather and timing did not allow that but it’s still there to be done.

One success was an attempt to catch a large roach from the Linear complex.  I seem to remember that when I was fishing on Willow Pool for the large roach there was another big 3lb plus specimen reported from Smith’s/Hardwick on Linear.  Now word had come that good roach were again being caught so plans were made for a few visits since roach are always a favourite.

The Linear Complex covers a number of lakes but it seems the Brassnose 1 and 2 offer the best chance so I made my way with John Found for a days fishing to check out the lay of the land on Brassnose 2 [B2 in most conversations here].  Having studied the aerial maps like Google Earth I could see a good number of bars on the western bank and thought these could be a good starting point though conversations with the bailiff suggested the opposite bank seemed a better bet.  We both blanked the day but the groundwork was not wasted and no doubt on its day fish could be caught along this bank.

The next trip we took the advice and although I blanked John did catch a nice roach though still under our 2lb target weight.   Our methods were similar being the standard helicopter rig with a maggot feeder and maggots as bait.  The rods were 13ft Drennan Feeders and main line of 6lb went to a hook link of 3lb with a size 14 hook.  Over the following visits I would vary this tackle to try and find the most successful, though at this stage I am assuming these fish are not the educated in finer tackle since most of what they see is for carp and they sometimes get caught on that gear.

On my next visit the weed was less of a problem and I fished a little further out.  I checked for features but there appeared to be very little variation.  There seemed to be just a slight change in depth so with my marker float out in place I marked my fishing rods for distance with rubber and using a spod I put out a bit of hemp, pellet and maggot for feed.   This possibly proved to be and error since over the session I hooked into four carp that gave me very little chance on the light gear.  I did land one of about 10lb but the others were too powerful.  On the brighter side I also landed my first B2 roach at a very pleasing 2lb-7oz.  Fortunately the bailiff had just arrived as I landed it so I also got better photos by the waterside.

                                                     2lb-7oz Linear roach

Further trips are planned an less feed and perhaps a sweetcorn variation of bait will be tried since in Spain that is by far our most successful bait, with that in mind my next trip is to Spain after roach.

Although Mequineza is mainly known for the catfish and carp that grow to large sizes I prefer to go after the roach having already caught enough of the others to be happy with that choice.  Of course this does not mean I will not try for them and indeed I had a days fishing after the carp while on a previous roach trip that gave me a 44lb-14oz common, very pleasing.

                                                                    44lb-14oz Spanish Gold

My regular companions on these Spanish roach trips are John Found and Pete Reading.   On a previous trip in the spring that I had missed Pete had caught the fish we had hoped would be there and at 3lb-10oz it made a truly worthy target.   Now in the November of the year we were fortunate that the weather was holding quite nicely, last year we had to contend with major floods that made fishing very difficult.  Following several trips for roach here we now have a good working knowledge of places to fish both on the River Ebro and on its tributary the Segre and on the first morning we set about trying the first spot this time on the tributary.   Our tackle is similar to that used on the Linear Fishery already described, the only real difference here is we use sweetcorn as the first choice of bait with pellet as a back.

The stock of roach here is vast and it seems they are spread far and wide, as a result of this if we have not had significant indications of fish being present within the first couple of hours we move on to another place.  This proved to be the case this time and so we moved to the so called Mines area.  This is a manmade area of flat, built up bank that is often used as a local match venue and gives access to the 40ft depths of the Ebro.   This time we got the expected action and caught a good number of roach to well in excess of the 2lb mark. 

                                                       My best at 2lb-9oz

                                                        Pete's best at 2lb-7oz

                                                       John's 3lb Gem.

Over the following days we moved around and caught the roach in each place we tried following the first failure.  The total of 2lb’s increased and then in the dying hours of the last day as John hit the jackpot amongst the other fish being caught.  Exactly 3lb and a real gem to end the trip on.  With 17 roach over 2lb and another 5 at 1lb-15oz it now remains for me to get that final target fish.

Nine days in April.

As mentioned in the last blog this has been a hectic 9 days with my fishing covering four venues and something like 680 miles.  Very mixed results, mostly poor with an occasional highlight to brighten the days and make the trips and effort worthwhile.  This period is probably typical my of fishing in that although the angling writers tend to miss out their blanks they do all have them in equal amounts to myself.  Right then, let’s look at the detail of those nine days and see what came to the rods.

Monday 9^th I set out in the afternoon to go down to the Colne Valley pit where I do my bream fishing.  I intended to fish for two nights and then move onto the next venue but I always leave the door open for a change of plans just in case the fishing comes alive and I feel I must maximise the chance.  No need to worry about that since yet again the bream failed to show.  Terry Lampard joined me for a couple of nights, fishing a different area of the 100 acre lake he suffered the same total blank, never mind, maybe next time.

The next move was to Marsh Farm in the hope of a sizable crucian of 3lb plus.  I intended to fish into dark so there was no rush to arrive and I fished the bream water through to midday, there was always the chance of a big tench though that did not happen either.  As any angler knows the weather plays a big part of our fishing and with the current big changes of conditions over the last month or so it has made sport very patchy.  The near freezing temperature of the previous night did not bode well for the coming two days effort, crucian like most fish prefer it quite steady and mild.  I had arranged to meet up with John Found and we would fish through to midnight using various different baits, but all under a float which would have an isotope attached once darkness descended.

As expected the sport was slow, the onsite manager had suggest that the previous week had given reasonable returns but this week it had slowed down almost to a stop.  I once brought a fishing book totally because of its title; it is actually a fly fishing book from New Zealand with title of ‘You should have been here Thursday.’  That sums up so much of our fishing days, last week, yesterday, next week or tomorrow, anytime but now!

John did manage one crucian but it was in very poor condition and we did not even photograph it.  The thought was that it could be on its way out being old and one of the original stock.   Tench and a few bits were caught but the fishing is definitely not what it was four or five years ago though there seems to be another group of crucian coming through and making the 3lb mark again.  Three other anglers had decided to fish through to 11pm and they had just one crucian of 2lb-11oz between them so a disappointing night.

I slept in the van, quite comfortable but getting up in the morning I feared the worse when I could see the ice layer on my van windscreen.  Not a good start and I seriously thought of leaving straight away.  I had planned to fish though into dark again, but decided that although I would fish it would only be until 2:00pm or so, and then I would leave for home.  Most of our bites the previous day had come on the prawn so I started on that and quickly took a perch of over 1lb to be followed later by two tench and a few bits.  No crucian and I left thinking yet again of the next time.

Arriving home earlier than expected did give the chance for another trip to be arranged and an invite to Curtis, Merv’s grandson, was quickly accepted and the Friday afternoon say us making our way down to Orchid Lakes after the catfish that reside in the Club Lake on that complex.  With frosts forecast yet again we were both well prepared for the overnight cold though the days were to be bright and quite mild.  This trip was for the Friday and Saturday night, returning first thing Sunday morning, with the known stock of four cats over 50lb and another six over 40lb plus other back-up fish we were hopeful of at least one cat between us.

                                                                 A meal for the cats.

The first night was fairly uneventful with just the occasional rattle as a carp tried to take one of the 30m/m pellets.  We were using a mix of the big halibut pellet I showed in a previous blog and a Dynamite pellet that is labelled ‘Eelblood’ that stinks like hell.  Last year I was fortunate enough to catch the lake record at 55lb-9oz during the daytime so the daylight hours passed with us both hopeful of a take though it was not to happen.  With line clips and open bail arms holding the 15lb line we were not looking for a twitch so the fishing can be quite relaxing.  Teatime came and went and about 9:30pm Curtis decided it was about time to get into bed where it was warmer, those freezing temperatures were returning with a vengeance.  Lest than 30 minutes later I heard his call ‘I’m into a cat,’ that smelly pellet had worked its wonders.  These fish are very powerful and for a 13 year old lad he played the fish like a veteran.  I adjusted the clutch to ensure it could not drag him into the lake on one of its runs, but all was safe and from beginning to end he seemed pretty much in control.  As it slipped into the waiting 50 inch landing net I told him he had got his 30lb cat, then I lifted it out and revised that to 40lb!  Weigh sling and camera was ready and I soon confirmed a weight of 46lb-9oz, but not without difficulty, I don’t lift that weight easily now adays.   After six night of trying he had caught his first catfish along with being his largest fish of any species, terrific effort.  With Marsh’s agreement I made the fish safe on a stringer such as used for the Spanish Cats ready for daylight photos in the morning, I retired to sleep but I don’t think Curtis got much of that!  We returned home with him planning on relating the story to his parents of the big one that didn’t get away!

                          Curtis holds his 46lb-9oz prize with help from a fellow angler.

Members of the Barbel Society will be familiar with the Research & Conservation Fund and the auction that is held yearly to raise monies that will be used to improve the stocks and habitat for the barbel.  As part of this I had offered two day guiding on a roach water that I fish on a regular basis and the next two days had been arranged with the anglers who had contributed their money for that service.  This year the auction raised in the region of £5000 so you can imagine that many others offered both goods and their time to this great cause.

On the Monday I met up with the first of those two anglers a chap by the name of Malcolm Davey.  He was intent on returning to angling following a serious illness and a long term absence from the sport and the day passed brilliantly. Tackle and tactics to catch the roach, both float and leger were discussed but the down side was the result.  As previously mentioned when making long term arrangements we are in the hands of the gods and the elements, Malcolm was not to be lucky.  A heavy frost on the Sunday night was followed by a bright, sunny day with flat calm conditions, just about the sum total of everything that could be wrong.  It was a real struggle to get a bite off anything, even the small fish would not play the game and with only a dozen or so chances it came to about 7:00pm and Malcolm had to retire because of the cold that was descending.  We both knew the next hour or two might be important with small fish finally dimpling the surface of the lake, but there was no choice.  Following the usual goodbye at the car park I returned to the tackle and of course the inevitable happened as I caught a few roach in the dying daylight up to a pleasing 1lb-15oz.

                                                       My 1lb-15oz Silver Gem.

The forecast for the next day was far better from a fishing prospective, heavy rain overnight [no frost] with this to continue into the mid-morning, then a 3 hour dry window followed by showers of varying intensity.  I met the next guest, Simon Asbury the following morning in that pouring rain.  Fortunately I had erected a day shelter the previous evening so we could get the tackle, bait and ourselves into shelter while we got ready to fish. Simon is a well experienced angler and he needed only the simple guidance of my experience as to the best method on this lake and hence the feeder maggot with its short hooklink on a helicopter presentation was soon sailing out into the fishery.  Straight away we could see the difference from the previous day as fish after fish came to the net.  Not all big but enough to keep the interest and anticipation for a big one approaching or at the 2lb mark.

John Found arrived a little later and set up just along the bank from us and again he was soon fishing away, but all the time he was preparing a trial with a different method.  I had read in another blog of an angler who had success in December on this water with float fished prawn and John set about giving this a serious try.  Whilst he started on the feeder rig he kept a near side swim topped up with soft pellet and bits of prawn, a small handful of the feed going into the swim at regular intervals to try and get the fish interested.  By the mid-afternoon he was ready to check if it was working and it did not take too long to get the answer, a 1lb-10oz silver gem lay in the net as positive proof.   A couple of missed bites then a roach of 1lb-10oz again, and a real beauty of 1lb-14oz soon followed.   Simon’s sport had gone very slow at this point and John offered him the chance to try the float fished prawn approach in his swim, and although a little reluctant I encourage to take the genuine offer.  Both John and I have caught many of these fish and we would like Simon to experience the joy of a big fish.

                                                              John's 1lb-14oz specimen roach.

Now Simon had told us that his pb roach was a fish of 1lb-10oz caught when he was about 16 year old, it takes no genius to guess what happened.  His first fish was a roach of exactly 1lb-10oz and this was followed by two others of 1lb-8oz, after that the smaller fish came in and he finished the day with a pleasing total of 19 roach to that equal pb of 1lb-10oz.

                                                         Simon with his 1lb-10oz equal pb.

                                                             A showery day on the pit.

Both Simon and Malcolm are determined to return to the water and get amongst those bigger fish and I’m sure they will succeed.  I travelled home that evening thinking it was a good job that I had no plans for today – I was knackered!

Red Letter Days in the South

Towards the end of the river season the draw of the mighty Hampshire Avon and Dorset Stour is hard to resist, so I don’t.  My last trip was in conditions that were far from perfect, the chub would have acclimatised to the extreme cold but I had not; still I had caught chub up to a respectable 6lb-4oz and I looked forward to this trip and catching even more of them.

The weather was turning from those extreme cold figures to a forecast of almost summer temperatures at 17C or even 18C by the Thursday; with each day of my intended three day session getting warmer how could I fail?   I started off at 5:00am on Tuesday for the 2.5 hour trip as this beats most of the works traffic though I am always amazed at how many cars are about at that time.  I had arranged to meet up with John Found in the car park on the Hampshire Avon and sure enough he was already in place and changing into his fishing clothing when I pulled up next to him.  Today would be dry but windy with a big chill factor, 10C on the thermometer but 4C on the hands and body exposed to the biting wind.  Following a short discussion as to what swims to fish we were both on our seperate way, the chosen swims were some considerable distance apart but with mobile phones we could keep in touch as to how we were progressing with the attempt to catch these sometimes elusive fish.

I considered using the large pellets mentioned in the last blog for about two seconds and then decided on the usual feeder maggot approach, the splash off those pellets would scare every chub within a hundred yards of my swim.  The river itself is frighteningly low and everybody is extremely concerned about the coming year, how much lower can it go without very serious problems.

I started off in a favourite swim and after the usual wait I landed a 5lb-4oz chub, that seemed to bode well for the coming days but then I had to wait quite some time before the next bite produced a great fish of 6lb-6oz, an improvement on the season’s best.  I was now going into the afternoon and John was having little joy in his swim, plenty of knocks but no fish.  Following the advice of our local expert, Pete Reading, he moved upstream about 15 yards and it proved its worth when he quickly caught his first chub of the day, not big but a starter.  The thought was that he was fishing at the downstream end of the chub’s territory and those knocks could well have been just tail flicks.  As was discussed later at Pete’s house, ‘If you want to meet someone you could stand outside their front door and eventually they will come out.  Go inside the house and they are there most of the time.’   John lost another chub that got into the rushes at his feet, and no more action followed so that was it for day one.

                                                                    6lb-6oz mint specimen

Wednesday the forecast was fairly dire, strong winds and rain for most of the day.  When fishing the Avon there are very few sheltered spots so taking the umbrella was essential.  John had decided to fish the same swim as he ended up in the previous day; I moved to a different section and settled into a swim that had previously giving quite good results although by its very nature the fish could be holding up in any of several spots.  I soon settled into the routine of casting and bait dropping that goes along with this style of fishing.  A couple of droppers of both hemp and maggot to start the day, regular casting to keep fresh maggots going into the flow where they will eventually be washed downstream.  Then just the occasional top up of hemp to hopefully attract fish from even further downstream.  The plan was great but at the end of the day I had just one medium chub for my efforts, the plans don’t always work.  That said, John’s plan did.  Not in his first choice swim, but by 11:00am he had still had no action and decided on a move to a swim a couple of hundred yards away – good move as it turned out!

Following the same routine as I just described he quickly put a 5lb-7oz chub in the net but even better he followed it up with a new river best for him at 6lb-10oz.  This might sound easy but his swim was in major traffic lane for the weed that always seems to be drifting down the river.  It can be a nightmare and your cast can stay in place for seconds or maybe ten minutes, but you will be wiped out.  Rod held high or right down low, even the tip under water and you still catch the drifting rubbish.  On a day like today the wind will dislodge much of this weed rubbish back into the flow making the problem even worse; it is only the potential rewards that keep you going and John got yet another reward in the form of his last chub of the day at 6lb-1oz.  His last fish though was a bonus barbel of 8lb-10oz taken just as the sun was setting to round off a great day’s fishing.

                                                       A new river best at 6lb-10oz.

The next day, Thursday, was the one where the weather forecast looked most favourable.  Possibly 17C, dry with light SW winds, what more could you ask for?  I went into a different swim again and John went back to the swim that had produced such a good result the previous day. I worked on my swim with feeder and dropper up to 1:00pm with just one medium chub again.  There had been a couple of real wrap rounds but these were far more likely to have been a passing salmon or pike, just maybe a barbel but I would have expected a take of him if that was the culprit.  I decided on another move but when I tried the chosen swim all I got was minnows, little demons that jump onto a bait as soon as it enters their area of occupation.  I tried a few casts but all to no avail, moved along to another nearby swim but again they were there.  Although not set in stone there is a fair chance that when the minnows are about in that number then the chub are not present.  The chub could turn up at any moment and the minnows stop but I did not want to waste my time on the bank hoping that this would happen.  Meanwhile it was happening in John’s swim.

He had gone through the morning without a touch, but the weed was far less of a problem and there were no minnows to contend with.  Then out of the blue he got a bite and immediately hooked what he thought was going to be a very good chub, a couple of minutes later he knew it was not a chub but far more likely to be a barbel.  It fortunately had not made any powerful runs downstream, after all John was fishing with chub gear and could probably not have stopped it.  Several long minutes later he drew a large barbel over the waiting landing net and once weighed he had a new personal best barbel for the river at 13lb-8oz.  Fantastic!  He then got a couple more chub though these were of far more moderate size at less than 5lb.  When he phoned to say he would be packing up at 4:00pm to beat the traffic on his way home I did not hesitate to comment I would be there shortly.

                                                           13lb-8oz beast of a fish.

I got round to his swim and found that although I had fished it many times and caught plenty of fish in the past, John was fishing to a different part of the currents than those I would normally chose.  When he began to put his tackle away he was still getting the occasional knock off something, trouble was it could be a dace or roach, you never know.  With two new river personal bests under his belt, both of which were very big fish he left a very happy man well content with his results for the three day break.  Then I began to fish with just under two hours of daylight left and obviously I was more confident of a fish than in my previous two swims for the day.  No bait dropping to be done, John had already done so on a few occasions so I relied on the swim feeder doing the job with the recasting needed following the occasional wipe out by weed.   Just the same as John I had several knocks but could not contact a fish but then at gone 5:00pm I finally hit a good fish that played hard to get in the extra flow of this swim.  I wondered if it was another barbel but then I saw the silver flash of a chub and things got very interesting.  When it finally went over the rim of the net I wondered if I had recaptured John’s 6lb-10oz fish of the previous day but that was not to be.  The scales gave a reading of 7lb-2oz on a near perfect specimen chub, only the fourth over that magic weight that I’ve achieved.  A chap fishing nearby had seen me land the fish and he came across to look at it, this helped in getting photos since he had confirmed that he was quite reasonable at that task and so he proved to be.  Not long after that the minnows moved in as is so often the case at dusk, I packed up but who worried about minnows – not me.

                                                   A 7lb-2oz beauty to round off the session.
 

In three days fishing John and I had only caught a handful of chub each, but what an average, 6lb-1oz, 6lb-6oz, 6lb-10oz and that 7lb-2oz cheery on the cake.  With John’s 13lb-8oz barbel it went to show just why the Southern rivers have such a draw on me.  The following day I stopped off at the roach lake but I had used up my allocation of luck when just one of the bigger roach fell to my maggot feeder, better luck next time.

                                                             A nice consolation prize.

River Roach - Another trip south with a grand reward of big roach.

Anticipation is a wonderful experience; it allows you to dream that anything is possible and with the three days planned this week that was certainly true.  As I mentioned within the last blog update, I would have days on the River Kennet, then the Roach Lake and the last day on the River Test, all venues able to supply a dream fish.

At almost exactly the arranged moment of time at 8.00am I drove into the venue car park to meet up with John Found, not bad timing over the near on 100 miles through traffic.  Although the day was forecast to be quite mild it was cool to say the least, and a fairly strong east wind bit into any exposed skin.  Wrap up warm since it is the middle of November and set off down the bank.  John allowed me to choose what appeared to be the going swim at the moment and his local knowledge definitely helped in this choice as the day was to show.

We had agreed that with the fairly noticeable drop in air temperatures over the weekend it was possible the fishing could suffer and it was to be a case of slowly does it with the baiting approach.  We were both set on a caster and hemp attack, arguably the best option for the low and clear river conditions we had in front of us.  The Kennet rarely shows the effect of floods but now it was getting into a shallow levels rarely seen in modern times, rain is urgently required.  The low water itself is not too much of a problem, but combined with a good drop in temperature the writing was on the wall.

Not a double but welcome on a cold day.

Sure enough the fishing proved to be tough, I did manage three barbel to a best weight of near 8lb, but John suffered his first blank of the season on this section of river following a lot of trips with numerous double figure fish under his belt.  Driving to his house where I would be staying I could only think that at least the roach would not be so temperature dependant.

Bright and early next morning we were making our way even further south to the roach pit.  That bright and early bit was in fact misleading, there was a heavy mist about and we did not leave the house until 8:00am since the roach fishing seems to improve as the day wears on.  Arriving at the lake the mist had gone and just three overnight stay carp anglers were present so no problems in getting a swim.  Purely for comfort we chose to have the slight breeze off our backs, again the wind had an edge to it so why not be as comfortable as possible?   I had contemplated the use of a float rod, but experience here suggests that the quivertip approach would produce far better results.  Short hook-link on a helicopter style rig, size 18 hooks to 3lb line and a small swimfeeder was soon set up, and I cast into the shadow of a tree to give me a constant target for the day ahead.  Red maggots were the bait this time and with the use of a small catapult I sent out a pouch of maggots and the same of hemp hoping to get the attention of any roach in the area.  It did not take too long before a positive pull on the tip resulted in the first roach of the day for me and at 1lb-14oz it was to end up as my best weight for the day as well. 

                                               First roach of the day at 1lb-14oz

The fishing was certainly slower than previously experienced, but slowly the total built up, and John laid the marker for the day with a fish of 1lb-15oz followed soon afterwards with a 1lb-12oz specimen.  No matter how many times I see a large roach caught I still get that grand feeling of having seen such a wondrous looking fish, deep of body and steel blue in colour, it is little wonder that they are many anglers favourite species.  We made our way back to the house thinking perhaps a few more fish would have been nice but at the same time we had a good result for November with pleasing to weight specimens for both of us.

                                                John with the 1lb-15oz best of the day.

It was now time for the trip I looked forward to with most anticipation, which was to the River Test.  I am fortunate enough to get the occasional invite to fish in the grounds belonging to Dave Steuart of salmon fishing fame.  He lives on the banks of the river and looks out of his dinning room window to watch salmon leap and roach roll just a few yards away.  My target was a 2lb plus roach and trotting was the order of the day with maggots as bait.  John was to try a slight variation in that he would use casters to see if that would produce a better class of fish.

                                              Dave will sometimes move to the riverside to watch the fish

Again the day began with mist and slight drizzle, but after stopping for a very welcome full English breakfast, it was now looking quite good, and the forecast was dry and fine.  Setting up the trotting gear I used a 2.5 SSG chubber float, the bulk shot set 18 inches above the hook using the AAA size with just a BB as a tell tale shot about 6 inch above the size 18 hook.  The rod was the usual Drennan 14ft Ultralight that has landed so many of my roach and chub specimens without too much worry.   On this venue the order of the day is lots of bites from small grayling up to perhaps a maximum of 1.5lb; add to this a good mix of brown trout with possible double figure specimens to be caught.  A few chub and dace are there and of course the roach.  These might go up to the 3lb mark although none of that weight have been taken in recent times, a 2lb specimen is there, but again not too many and it remains a very challenging target for the visiting angler.

The morning session had us both worried with very poor results to the point that John said it was definitely the worse he has experienced there over a good number of years.  As could be expected with the lack of rain the river was very low with a flow that was slow compared to that normally experienced.  There was also a lot of suspended matter that Dave suggested was coming from a trout farm just upstream of our location, tons of crap going into the river on low conditions certainly cannot be good.  I wondered about trying different swims but my result stayed similar, a few grayling and just one brown trout of about 4lb, not what the doctor ordered.

John had taken a couple of roach amongst very few fish, but at 1lb-9oz and 1lb-12oz they looked very good, now having been to the bottom of the stretch available, I returned to a swim below John’s position.  It was now early afternoon and my first dozen trots through the swim [previously fished without success] I caught a grayling on each run through.  Things were looking up although nothing seemed different to me, same weather and the river had not changed never the less the next trot down saw the float disappear and the strike met that ‘thump-thump’ that suggests and roach.  A couple of those grayling had dropped off the hook as I tried to bring them to the net, when I saw this roach I prayed pretty hard for it to stay on and it did.

Lifting it out I could see it would easily be the 2lb target I had in mind and the digital scales soon confirmed that with a weight of 2lb-6oz, brilliant!  John quickly got the photos done and the fish was returned to continue on its way to that 3lb weight, hopefully I could be about to catch it.  That improvement in the catch rate continued for both of us and a good number of 1lb plus roach came to the nets though none beat the 1lb12oz for John, and of course the 2lb 6oz specimen for me.

                                                          2lb-6oz River Test roach.

There it is then, three days in the south, different venues and good fish caught with that last gem for myself.  Plans are already being made for a return and this time it may well be the Hampshire Avon and those big chub that are the target, I’ll let you know.